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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

500 Words - Day # I lost Count – Throwing Out of the Cold onto the Fire

I had this cute little 500 word blip all
ready to go today. A piece of lightness surrounding the kamikaze nut hunters
flinging themselves relentlessly into the path of death and slowing my morning
commute. Black, grey and red squirrelly little buggers out in droves trying
desperately to stuff their pantries with food for winter. Every morning I’m forced
to a near screeching halt at least once to avoid the - back and forth, back and forth… go left, go right, wait for it……wait
for it…..now! No not now, not NOW….go back! Go BACK! GO BACK! Which way is
back? - Game of chicken that lunges out of the right shoulder and tugs at
my human instinct to preserve life. These random encounters rarely attack me
from the left which is odd and leads me to believe they are far less ‘random’
then the rodent populous wants us to believe.

Where was I going?

…The cute little piece about the cute
little rodents da da da….so on and so forth. Like I was saying, it was going to
be a cute little collection of words. Then I read D’Amato’s opinion piece in today’s Record about our local churches closing their doors to the Out of the
Cold Program. One by one; facing the surmounting challenges of increased client
participation, increasing mental health and substance addiction issues,
decreasing legions in their armies of human kindness; many churches don’t have
a choice. While I believe that the church in the very foundation of its’ doctrine
has some moral obligation to perform the services of human kindness many
homeless people in our city have come to rely upon, it is not difficult to see
that physically, they simply can’t do it. Without people, without resources,
without the proper training how can they?

I suspect that they have for a great number
of years been pulling it off in a ‘silk purse from a sow’s ear’ fashion.
Quietly, doing the best they can with the skills, resources and manpower they
have had. I am sure too that the decision to close church shelters is as
devastating for the volunteers as it is for the clients they service. The choice
by Church officials could not have been taken lightly, made without
contemplation or regret. But I also
believe that they’ve done the right thing, made the right decision. They have
done what a Church should do and have acted in the best interest of the people
they serve.

In this case, the homeless.

In many ways these shelter providing
churches have been enabling the bureaucracy of homelessness. Taking care of the
problem so it never really reveals its’ full magnitude to the public. They’ve
been shouldering the burden for everyone. Mainly the local government who
consciously or not has come to appreciate that caring for the homeless, or
better yet preventing homelessness, is not a front burner issue for them, not
while someone else is willingly stepping up to the plate. The results are
proving themselves; mental illness and substance abuse that leads individuals
to the street, poverty that leads individuals to the street, those issues
haven’t been getting the attention from the bodies with the resources and the
purse strings that they should; consequently the instances are growing
exponentially. No problem—no worry—no programs—more problems.

By quitting, the Churches have just ripped
off the Band-Aid and exposed the issue, the reality of it, the enormity of it
and the inhumanity of it. It’s out there on public display. Closing the
shelters has said “Here is the real magnitude of the problem, we need help. Help
at the source, help to end
homelessness not just care for it, help from the string pullers and decision
makers.” They’ve said, “This is everyone’s problem—now what are we going to do
about it?”

The timing is harsh, but I don’t think it
could be timed with greater impact. The cold weather is approaching. And I
agree with D’Amato on that point, we can’t let people freeze. Clearly we aren’t
alone in our thinking that even one day a week is unacceptable to be out in the
cold, let alone four. The government and agencies know it too. Otherwise everyone
wouldn’t be scrambling for a solution, trying desperately like our squirrel
population to get it together before the mercury falls. Right now there is the
bureaucratic collection of data, focus groups, discussion, planning, and finger
pointing. - back and forth, back and
forth… go left, go right, wait for it……wait for it…..now! No not now, not
NOW….go back! Go BACK! GO BACK! Which way is back? Everyone has a opinion
and a solution, some people even have the means to effectively implement a plan
but eventually the cold is going to come and when it does the problem will be
people. People who need help and care and a warm place to spend the night. It
won’t be an ‘issue’ anymore it will be a matter of humanity.

When bureaucracy yields to humanity eleventh
hour solutions emerge; even if they are transitory and unsustainable long
term—one will emerge this time as well. People will help people; it’s what we
do.

And there is the concern. There are
temporary solutions to every problem. You can stick a bucket under a leaky
drain and that will work for a while to keep a puddle off the floor but
eventually you have to fix the leak.

I feel the fear and the senselessness of
the situation but I don’t think the Churches are out of line, I think they are far
from abandoning the fundamentals of their religion or turning their backs on
the needy. I think they have done the right thing. I applaud them for making a
giant stand at solving a tremendous problem. I love that D’Amato asks (and I
paraphrase) “what would Jesus do?” If
the ultimate solution to caring for homelessness is to find an end to
homelessness, these Churches have done exactly what I believe Jesus would do; they’ve
taken away the bucket and called a plumber.